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So Etta James doesn’t like Beyonce’s redition of her signature song, “At Last”, and that reminded me that I’ve never linked to Andrew Chan’s piece on Cadillac Records, the only serious appraisal of the film that I saw concurrent with its release. To quote at length, Chan has nothing but praise for Beyonce:
In the film’s climactic number, Beyoncé seals the deal with her rendition of “I’d Rather Go Blind”…as an actress and a singer, she finds ways to make her interpretation both faithful and fresh. Sung directly to an impossible, already-married love interest, label founder Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), the performance begins from the point-of-view of the male, gazing at Etta from behind with his puppy-dog eyes. From the start, the pace and phrasing of Beyoncé’s vocals follow Etta’s with surprising fidelity. Then, as the camera inches forward, eventually framing the singer’s face in close-up, the scene builds in intensity, climaxing with a sneer at the corner of her mouth, and a few defiant, gut-wrenching wails. It’s clear her version is not the original’s moan of resignation, but an enactment of all the bitterness and resentment on which Etta James based her take-no-prisoners persona….
By the time Beyoncé is finished with “I’d Rather Go Blind,” she has achieved what neither Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles nor Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash could manage: a respectful embodiment as well an expansion of a mythic figure. She takes us across a curiously underexplored frontier, where the emotional and physical abandon of an R&B performance becomes both the means and the substance of great melodramatic acting.
Etta’s version of “I’d Rather Go Blind” is embedded above, and Beyonce’s is down below. Judge for yourself.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
Doesn’t get that Beyonce is young and hot looking. Who wouldn’t pick Beyonce over Etta James. And to top it off Etta may have made the song famous but the song does not belong to her. She is the 3rd person who actually recorder the song. So she needs to step off. Open you eyes look in the mirror Etta, you are old, fat and washed up. She is the last person they would want to see at the Inaugural Ball. Sorry Lady only the Hot & young were invited to take part. Get over yourself with your deep smokers voice that you have going. Haaa!! Oink oink!!
Liz,
Your comment is probably like you, ugly. Etta James is a beautiful woman who has an award winning voice. Can you sing? At 71 years old, she still looks good. The President and his wife didn’t make the decision to use Beyonce because of youth and beauty. They are not like that. They are Christians and would NEVER do anything as insensitive as [that]. You are so off base.
I think Beyonce did an excellent job singing at the Inaugural Ball. Your’re right, Etta doesn’t own that song; but no call for being nasty.
Beyonce deserved to sing at the Inagural Ball. Her rendition of “At Last” was one of the best I have heard! I finally had the chance to see Etta James perform in October, only to be disappointed to tears. Although her fabulous band was right on, she struggled and looked so alone on that stage. You could just feel her pain. Some musicians in the audience said she fell off the wagon. Being in recovery myself, my heart went out to her. I pray she can once again make peace with herself and come back strong!
There is a fundamental difference between soul singers of these 2 generations. I hear and see it everyday. Not just with Etta and Beyonce but with most. You can hear the infinite soulfulness coming from the voices of Etta, Luther, Donnie Hathaway, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Aretha. Their music is coming from someplace very, very real. These modern day “faxsimiles” undeniably have the technical capability to sing. We know this because that is what is thrown in our face every time they open their mouth, an endless display of vocal calisthenics saying to the listener, “look what I can do!”. THIS IS NOT SOULFUL. Beyonce’s contrived performance of this song says nothing about Etta and everything about Beyonce.
Thanks for the link, Karina! I just wanted to point to Armond White’s review of it, which I quite liked: http://www.nypress.com/article-19085-if-you-liked-it-then-you-shoulda-put-a-wig-on-it.html
Also would hasten to add that Etta James and Beyonce are not really natural comparisons musically — something I try to explain in the write-up, and something that also seems to make the Etta vs. Beyonce angle on this irrelevant. That’s something I find refreshing about the movie and her performance. But for the Beyonce haters, here’s a pretty engaging piece on what makes her such an exciting artist (and also why her recorded work doesn’t seem to fully represent her strengths): http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2009/02/09/090209crmu_music_frerejones
it’s a clash of the titan-divas
Liz,
don’t be such a dumb c***. i’m sure that, on some level you’re better than that: calling another woman fat. this crap is worse than black on black crime.